
Book '^ 



ur 






ADDEESS 



AT THE FUNERAL 



OF 



CAPT. LORENZO D. GOYE, 



SLAIN BY REBELS IN VIRGINIA, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 



BY S. P. LEEDS, 

PASTOR. 



HANOVEE, N. H. 

PRINTED AT THE DARTMOUTH PRESS. 

1863. 



^'t 



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u 

/ 

ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL 

OK 

CAPT. LOREMZO D. GOVE, 

IN THE 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, 

BY THE PASTOR* 



7J^ 



There is always something peculiarly impressive to the mem- 
bers of a small community, in the loss of one of their number. 
We constitute what might be called a large family. As is too 
often the case with such a family, whose sons and daughters have 
reached middle life, and have households of their own, - without 
much intercourse except as we meet upon the street, we yet feel 
an interest in each other's welfare deeper than we are conscious 
of till the hour of trial comes. Then — when some domestic circle 
is bereaved of its babe — when disaster oiany kind visits some one 
of us- all have a sympathy unknown in large towns or cities. Es- 
pecially is this the case when Death removes a husband and a fa- 
ther ; and yet more when this husband and father is, for a 
good reason, at all prominent among us. 

So is it in the present instance. We are not here to-day to in- 
du'^^e in eulogy. Seldom, and in but hmited degree, is such a 
strain appropriate at a funeral-service, or in the house of God. 
Nor would it be fitting that I, who knew the deceased less 
than most of you, should attempt to describe to you his charac- 
ter. Nor needs he praise among us. As I have already indicat. 
ed, he was one of a family which we of this village compose, at 
the head of one of its households, and well-known to us all. This 
is enough for us. He leaves behind him a widow ; he leaves be. 
hind him children. This is enough for us. 

* The writer has not felt at liberty to refuse the publication of this Address, to 
friends who think it might be of some service to the cause of Truth. He counts it 
a privilege, indeed, to make sny contribution, however humble, to the interests of 
Patriotism, Humanity, and Righteousness. Hastily prepared, the Address experss- 
es, nevertheless, deliberately formed opinions and heartfelt convictions. 



vd-i^, 



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^ 



But this is not all. We cannot forget that our brother has 
been taken from us amidst peculiar circumstances. He has been 
slain ; and slain while fighting in the cause of his country. In 
that great host which has gone forth to maintain Government, 
and Popular Institutions, the Union, the Constitution, and the 
Laws, he had a place, a place of no shght consequence, a place 
which he filled honorably too ; and in that place it was that he 
fell. We have, to day, my Friends, the somewhat unusual spec. 
tacle of a Funeral without the body of the departed. That body 
rests beneath no deep waters— in no mountain-hollow— in the re- 
cesses of no trackless forest —in no distant land ; but in a spot 
not very far away, which we know, but from which, alas ! War 
prevents us from removing it. On the last day of October, a 
hostile force attacked our lines ; our friend hastened to perform 
his duty ; he was mortally wounded, and became a prisoner. He 
received, I rejoice to say, great kindness from persons residing 
near the battle ground ; they took him to their house, and there 
watched over and nursed him until the next day when his spirit 
passed away. When, or indeed whether, his remains can 
be brought to this his ^home, is yet uncertain ; therefore we 
delay no longer the obsequies. And therefore, I repeat, it is in 
circumstances peculiar and peculiarly fitted to excite our regard 
for him who has been taken and for the wife and children who 
have been left, that we meet to-day. Patriotism unites with sym- 
pathy and with friendship to bid us mourn, and pay the last sad 
tribute of respect for his memory. 

But an occasion of this kind compels us to look beyond what 
concerns the individual or the community. It were affectation, alike 
culpable and foolish, to take no note of the Great Conflict in one 
of whose innumerable minor struggles our friend lost his life. I 
cannot, if I Avould, be silent on this topic at such at time. " The 
voice of our brother's blood crieth unto" us, as well as unto God, 
" from the ground," and commands us to ask why it has been 
shed. As plainly, however, does the solemnity of this service 
forbid that I enter upon the sphere of partisan pohtics ; and this 
you will not ask of me. 

Under a sense, then, of my responsibility to right reason and 
to God, I would speak to-day of the events of our time. 



So speaking, I feel bound to declare that our friend was slain 
by a most wicked rebellion. " Oppression and revolt," in the 
language of Scripture (Isa. 59 : Vi) ,-'' oppression and revoW 
havl taken his Ufe. The more carefully I read the word of God, 
the more conscientiously I listen to the voice of unbiased reason, 
the deeper becomes my conviction of the enormity of that at- 
tempt at revolution which has already made thousands of widows 
and myriads of orphans. I am but repeating what was said to 
me by one of the ablest and holiest divines of our land, a man, 
too, of conservative temper, as well of as Southern birth, when I 
affirm, that this is the most flagrant instance of human wicked- 
ness since the crucifixion of our Lord. Whether we consider the 
frauds with which it was ushered in, the thing itself, or the ob- 
ject at which it aims, we are horrified at this rebellion. 

When we consider those introductory frauds, we need no 
very high standard of morality by which to condemn them. 
Admitting that in a righteous enterprise some bold measures 
may be resorted to, not allowable in ordinary times, admitting 
that some strategems, in ordinary times inexcusable, may then 
be rightly practised, no one can justify the presence in a coun- 
try's Cabinet and Senate of men whose hearts are given and 
whose hands are virtually, if not formally, pledged to that coun- 
try's enemies. Who of us does not rejoice that Washington and 
his compeers held no place in British counsels when they engaged 
in the defence of our freedom ? With what different sentiments 
should we regard the memory of these men, were it otherwise ! 

But aside from this, consider the rebellion in itself. An at. 
tempt at revolution, my Friends, is no light thing. Wise men 
have long since decided, with the greatest of English statesmen, 
Edmund'^Burke, that " a revolution will be the very last resource 
of the thinking and the good." Too common in our nation is the 
idea that to baptize an enterprize with that name is enough for 
its defence, and too frequent is the reference to our own example. 
But, apart from the fact that there is a world-wide difference be- 
tween a revolution for the right and a revolution for the wrong, 
between a revolution whose motto was that all men are entitled to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and a revolution whose 
motto is a denial of this , between a revolution to maintain Free- 



dom and a revolution to extend Slavery, — apart from this, I say, 
ire must inquire in the case submitted to us whether the asserted 
wronge were intolerable, whether redress was hopeless, and wheth 
er there was a reasonable hope of success in the rebellious under- 
taking. All these must concur. Did they concur in the present 
instance ? Were those who rose up against the Government suf- 
fering intolerable oppression at its hands ? Was all hope of re- 
dress for it vain ? Was there also good ground for them to 
expect success in their revolutionary enterprise ? If all of these 
questions can be answered in the affirmative, then is the present 
rebellion righteous ; if any of them must be answered in the neg_ 
ative, then is it wicked. And wicked indeed is it, if it is a re- 
bellionagainst a Government whose power has been felt only in 
blessings, a Government with which have been bound up the 
hopes and the prayers of the oppressed in all other lands, a Gov- 
ernment whose success gave promise that '' in due time arbi- 
trary weights should be lifted from all men's shoulders, and all 
have a fair opportunity in the race of life." 

But, my Friends, Patriotism requires no injustice at our hands. 
It is but fair to admit that our countrymen who have now become 
our enemies contend that they were suffering a vast wrong. 
And if Slavery be a great good, and if, farther, the right to ex- 
tend it be a real and invaluable one ; I see not how this can be 
denied. Nor was there any hope of redress for this asserted in- 
jury ; for an overwhelming majority in the land, - four-fifths of its 
voters, — in two different columns, to be sure, but, on this point, 
unanimous, - had refused their aid to Slavery-extension. The 
question, then, recurs, and we cannot justly evade it, - Is slave, 
ry of such a nature, or, more exactly. Is the extension of slavery 
so precious a "right" as to entitle its advocates to convert this 
great land into one battle-field ? Let the widows whom this 
war has made, answer that question ! Is the extension of slave- 
ry so precious a " right " as to entitle its advocates to convert 
this great laud into one vast battle-field ? Ye fathers of more 
than one hundred thousand sons already dead in this conflict, 
answer ! Ye mothers, who with those sons gave also a portion 
of your own life, answer ! Ye little children, who look in vain 
for the return of the protectors whom God gave you, answer ! 



From all of these various classes. I am sure, comes tii ■ -, ij, 
' Were Slavery but a thousandth part as evil as it is, beu ■! cliat 
it go no farther than that our husbands and sons anil , a oats 
should have bled ; but, being what it is, the object ot the war 
adds unspeakably to its guilt!' — Yes, odious as is this ■ jcilion 
in the frauds that introduced it, odious as it is in itscii iL is 
odious also in its avowed aim. The extension of slavery '. — the 
mere statement of such an object is enough to condeiua any 
enterprise. Take these all, then, into view, and you loo^ u[)on 
one of the enormous crimes in the history of the world. 

But, my Friends, Ave are not here merely to consider the wick- 
edness of men, still less the wickedness of others, although for a 
time compelled so to do. The word of God teaches us, when we 
are visited by great calamities, to recognize His agency. Long 
ago did He declare that the proud Assyrian who came up to as- 
sail Israel executed, though unwittingly, His own infinite purpose ; 
we are told that the death of our Saviour was accomplished, indeed, 
by wicked human hands, but fulfilled the everlasting counsel of 
Jehovah. Are there no indications, then, of His displeasure 
against a guilty nation, in our present calamities ? 

Well may any one shrink from pointing the judgments of God. 
Plainly are we taught in Scripture that the Divine displeasure 
against individuals is not to be inferred from the afflictions which 
they may endure. But, we must close our eyes to a very large 
portion alike of its narratives, of its declarations, and — be it es- 
pecially noted - of its prophecies concerning Christ's kingdom, if 
we would not see that there is very great reason for guilty na- 
tions to fear Divine punishments. In our own case, we have es- 
pecial reason to believe that we may be suffering such, in the 
fact that such have been long anticipated by all who can claim the 
name of observers. Patent to many among ourselves have 
been our national sins, and sad have been their forebodings. 
Not, indeed, to destroy us, as we would humbly hope, has God 
lifted up His hand. His dealings with us we would fain regard 
as chastisements " for our profit." Trustfully do we anticipate 
a time when, our pride, vainglory, materialism, and the rest, hav- 
ing been rebuked, we shall come forth from these troubles to be 
a better as well as a happier nation than before. Indeed, it 



6 

would be hard for aiiy one to conceive a process better adapted 
to secure this result than is much of what we are now called to 
bear. Living too much on the immediate or the speedy future, 
we now find a very black cloud over it, and we can only hope, at 
the best, for a perfectly restored peace and strength years hence. 
Proud of the increasing extent of our domain, we see it threat- 
ened with a most serious dismemberment. Relying on our vast 
material resources, we find ourselves bafiied by a fraction of our 
number with but a fraction of our wealth. Confident in the 
working of natural laws apart from their Author, we observe 
those laws doing service to our enemies. Boastful of the inhe- 
rent powers and capacities of our government, we are rudely 
roused to discover our error, and have it so painfully set before 
us that we were in danger for a time of exaggerating it. Care- 
less of Government in general -of the sacred names of authority 
and law — we are taught most fearfully the meaning and value 
of these. Defiant towards other nations, we are obliged to sub- 
mit to indignities the more galling because we persist in regard- 
ing them as greater than they are. Exultant in our success and 
deeming ourselves — with but partial truth — the object of gene" 
ral admiration, we are become a byword and a reproach with few 
indeed to do us reverence. In fine, too much inchned to disre- 
gard the obligation of the moral law, — to beheve that the will of 
a majority may modify its applications — to hold that there is 
no Higher Law than human enactments, we are compelled at last 
to recognize the law of Jehovah. 

I repeat, it would be hard to conceive a process better adapt- 
ed to make our nation truly wiser than is much of what we are 
now suffering. Already, I think, we see some fruits of this dis- 
cipline ; fruits, however, I must add, which there is great reason 
to fear would never come to maturity were our calamities soon 
to cease. Not quite so self-confident "as we once were, are we 
now ; not quite so sure of our power to crush all enemies ; not 
quite so certain that wealth and energy can overcome every ob- 
stacle ; much more inclined are we to think that it is " God's 
gentleness which hath made us great," that it is He that " re- 
moveth Kings and setteth up Kings," that " except the Lord 
keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Believing, 



then, in the ultimate success of our cause, not for any one rea. 
son, 'but for the combined reasons that greater strength and re. 
sources generally prevail, — that our cause is just, — that we 
are in the line of modern history, the regular successors of 
William of Orange, the third William of En 'land, of Washing, 
ton and his co-laborers, — and that we are coordinate, too, with 
the great movements of Christendom in the present day as illus- 
trated especially in Germany and Italy which are struggling at 
once for union and liberty, for union as the safeguard of liberty, 
and for liberty as the soul of union,— I anticipate that when that 
success arrive, it will appear from the character of the nation that 
it has been dealt with in a way of chastisement most illustriously 
merciful as well as wise. 

But, my Friends, I am forced to say that, after the most care- 
ful consideration of the subject, I cannot affirm that such chas- 
tisement exhausts the whole meaning of current events. I pon- 
der in amazement those events ; I contemplate the armies up- 
on our soil — armies which in their aggregate (including, I 
mean those of both sides) outnumber all that modern times can 
show ; I consider the frightful loss of life ; I ask with awe wheth- 
er there be nothing in our previous national history to explain 
this Cautiously- avoiding as far as I can all rashness and pre- 
sumption -I inquire whether there be aught of sin which we have 
committed, to furnish a parallel to the sufferings which we are 
now enduring. And such a parallel, I find. I find that, besides 
the widows and orphans and childless whom we now commiser- 
ate, there has been another host of these in our land whom we 
have almost disregarded. I find that for years, scores of thou, 
sands of human beings have been annually transferred from the 
States of their nativity to remote regions, agamst their wiU, 
and as articles of merchandise. I find that human beings have 
been sold on the auction-block as brute beasts, for prices that 
have risen with their virtues and their piety. I find that, by 
this process, husbands have been separated from wives, and par. 
ents from children. And as if this were not enough, by unmis- 
takable evidence, I find that thousands annually have lost their 
Uves thereby. And all this, I say, has lasted for years. 



K 



8 

When, then, Friends and Fellow-Christians, I see what we are 
looking upon to-day, I dare not affirm that chastisement^ merely, 
is the meaning of to-day's events. If Joseph's brethren, having 
sold one brother into bondage and being threatened with the loss 
of another, were right when their affliction reminded them of 
their crime, and " they said one to another, we are verily guilty 
concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul 
when he besought us and we would not hear, — therefore is this 
distress come upon us;" then may we well fear lest that great 
sin of our nation has brought upon us a bitter portion of our woe. 
Speaking as it becomes God's ministers to speak — as upon my 
oath to tell the truth and the whole truth in this matter — I be- 
lieve, I say, that to the great sin of the slave-trade within our 
borders is due a large and bitter portion of our present woe. 

If any would suggest that we, at least, of the Northern part 
of the land, have not been involved in that crime, gladly would I 
accept the suggestion, if I could. But, my Friends, — to say 
nothing of laws to arrest the guilty traffic which we might have 
secured — to say nothing of these, because by some their constL 
tutionality has been doubted, — can we declare as befcee God 
that our influence has been exerted on this subject as it ought to 
have been ? Have our voices been lifted earnestly and inces- 
santly upon it ? Who of us can affirm that with " meekness of 
wisdom," yet with holy indignation ,jhe has rebuked this inhuman 
trade as steadily and earnestly as he should have done ? 

And this, too, be it remembered, is but the most glaring man- 
ifestation of our national sin. For, our national sin is not slavery 
so much as it is the ill-treatment of a race ; and this has been 
shared in by the whole land — North as well as South. The 
gloomy proofs of this assertion, I need' not give. 

So, then, by our wrong treatment of that sorrowing race and 
by our guilty silence, we are involved in the particular sin of 
which I speak. That traffic, which, upon the high seas, we have 
been ready to condemn and from the contemplation of whose hor. 
rors there we might have learned its essential horrors every- 
where, — that traffic, whose agents as between Africa and this 
land, one of our own statesmen and the son of whom our Col- 
lege here is proudest, declared to be " offenders far beyond the 



9. 

ordinary depths of human guilt," — that traffic, of which as thu8 
existino", he exclaimed " I hear the sound of the hammer — I see 
the smoke of the furnace where manacles and fetters are still 
for^-ed for human limbs — I see the visages of those who, by 
stealth and at midnight, labor in this work of hell ; i f the pul- 
pit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody 
with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false 
to its trust," — that traffic, with its annual myriads of broken- 
hearted wives and parents and children, and of prematurely 
slain, explains those other myriads, similarly bf>reft and similarly 
smitten, over whom we mourn to-day ! 

Verily, my Brethren and Friends, the nation's sin has found 
us out. " The Lord is known by the judgment which He execu- 
teth," and He has said, " The wicked shall be turned into hell, 
and all the nations that forget Gcd." Our siis- against a 
WHOLE RACE — a sin so great that it might well destroy our na- 
tion, which, I fear, would destroy it, were not Paul's mitigation 
ours, that we have done it " ignorantly in unbelief," — our sin, 
culminating in the internal slave-trade, has brought at last its re- 
tribution. " Verily, He is a God that judge th in the earth !" 

Yes, my Friends, there is a God, and sin against Him is " an 
evil thing and a bitter." He will rule among men. They shall 
bow to His power, if they will not bow to His law ; nor shall He 
fail to have obedient subjects, too, for future generations shall 
learn from our calamities, if we will not, to acknowledge His 
authority. 

But why should not we learn, also ? This question I now wish 
to bring home to each one individually and in relation to his eter- 
nal welfare. For, my Friends, vast as are the temporal interests 
of nations, vaster far are the spiritual interests of individuals, be- 
cause these are immortal. Nations die ; men never die. To all em- 
pires, kingdoms, republics, an end - however remote - shall come. 
" The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up." But we — our higher nature- ourselves 
- shall outlast them, and shall live on, and on, forever, -#nd God's 
dealings with nations, we may well believe, are designed to teach 
2 



10 

us those great lessons which our individual live^ in this age ot the 
world are too short to learn. As one might teach a child, or a 
person of feeble sight, with large lettei-s, so upon national his. 
tory He writes in broad and unmistakable characters the great 
truths of His rule over us, the excellence of His moral law and 
the necessity of obeying it, His long-suffering — vast and won- 
derful, yet not exhaustless, and followed by — His fearful jus- 
tice. " The Lord is slow to anger, — and great in power, — 
and will not at all acquit the wicked ;" these words of His Book 
stand out upon the canvass of His Providence as He deals with 
nations — stand out so fully that millions may read them at a 
time, and each may read them for himself. It is true, and bless- 
ed be His name for it ! that with us as individuals there seems 
to be a greater long-suflfering than with us as gathered into na- 
tions. For, He has prepared an atonement for us as individu- 
als, while for nations there is none directly — they receive only 
the reflected benefits of that one. With us, then, in our sepa- 
rate relations to Him, He lays, perhaps, a greater emphasis on 
His mercy than He does in our national relations to Him, — say- 
ing, My name is " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and grac- 
ious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgivmg iniquity and transgression and sin" 
— and yet to this He adds, " and that will by no means clear the 
guilty." Let no man, then, trifle with God. Do you behold 
disloyal empires receiving the visits of His wrath ? Do you see, 
as if in flaming letters upon a midnight sky, the declaration, 
" The nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish , 
yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted ? " Then, be you surcj 
my Fellow-men, that disloyal individuals shall not escape. Oh, 
be warned that a righteous God is upon the throne. Who, though, 
"long-suffering and abundant in goodness, — keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin," " will hfi 
no means clear the guilty." 

And here I cannot but recall what has been said in this hou'e 
on another occasion and on a related topic. These times — 
through^ur^own very doings-' all but speak, sending forth a voice.* 
This friend of ours whom we mourn to-day — how lost he his life ? 
And we sent him forth ; you, my Friends, — some of you, at 



11 

least — girt upon him as it were his Bword, Wherefore ? To 
suppress rebellion against a rightful government — to uphold the 
majesty of law — to protect the common weal. For this, he 
went ; in going thus, you bade him Godspeed. Will you, then, 
my Friends, will you dare, even by neglect, to array your- 
selves against the Best of governments ? By cold-heartedness, 
if not worse, will you venture to cast your lot with that rebeUious 
host which Satan leads against the laws of God and the highest 
welfare of man ? My hearer, you condemn the sin of our recent 
brethren ; you abhor what you rightly call a wicked rebellion : 
in God's own words I ask you — " And thinkest thou this, 
man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, 
that iliou shalt escape the righteous judgment of God ?" I say 
to you once more. Be warned that a holy God is upon the throne ! 

But, before I close, I must revert to that precious truth of the 
exceeding long-suffering of Jehovah. It is a manifestation of 
that Gospel which is for us preeminently as individuals. Yes, 
there is a Gospel for us. " Now, then," sayS'His word, " we"- 
His ministers-" are ambassadors for Christ, as thuugh God did 
beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye recon- 
ciled to God." Dear hearers, " he ye reconciled to G-ody It is 
He Himself who invites you ; give up that enmity of yours, 
renounce that indifference of yours towards Him. He desires 
to be your Friend ; He invites your friendship ! Oh that my 
lips might be touched as with a live coal from off His altar 
to-day, as in his name I " beseech you*' to delay no longer. 
Would that I could unfold with fitting power the Saviour's love. 
Would that I could set forth justly the attractiveness of Him 
who died that we might live. I cannot ; nor can, indeed, any 
mortal 'tongue. Let, then, this occasion add its voice to mine. 
It is the death of a fellow-man that has brought us here. Let us 
forget that this is an unusual occasion. Let us remember that 
our friend, had he escaped all the perils of the camp and the 
field, must have died at last. Somewhere — in some manner — 
at some time — he must have died. In his own home, it may 
be, on the familiar bed, he would have died. He has only an- 
ticipated, perhaps not anticipated, the day of his departure. 
Died, he must have, sooner or later. ' 



12 



It is so witb us all. We need not leave our quiet New Eng- 
land homes, to die. Nor is there any less uncertamty 2.\>oy.i the 
hour of our death, here. Nor are the realities that follow death 
any less solemn to those who die here. I " pray you, then, m 
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Go forth, agam, my 
Friends, to your wonted duties -remember with genuine sym- 
pathy this widow and these children (God have her and them m 
His keeping, and animate us with a fitting spirit towards them) - 
aim to be faithful citizens and true patriots, — but, m all, and 
above all, " Be ye reconciled to God." 



L 



